Earth v. Eyeth

a) What is the primary argument of the students representing Deaf Culture? The primary argument of the students at Gaullaudet for Deaf culture is that it is “a radical movement that views deafness not as a disability but as an oppressed minority status akin to race, and also as a unique linguistic culture. The movement holds that there is nothing wrong with being deaf, only with how society has treated deaf people.”

b) Why would the Deaf Culture students value a President of Gallaudet who spends more time in Eyeth over Earth? Shouldn't a President of a college represent all students? The Deaf Culture students would value a President of Gallaudet who spends more time in Eyeth over Earth, because then the President would have better and communication and understand and be better able to relate to the Deaf Culture Students. The President of a college should represent most, if not all of the students who attend his/her college. This is shown “in 1988, protesters rebelled against the appointment of a hearing president, Elisabeth Singer, and demanded a deaf president (something Gallaudet had never had since its founding in 1864). Singer resigned , and Jordan was appointed in her place. Fernandes, the Gallaudet provost whom Jordan wanted to see as his replacement, is also deaf; but to some, ‘not deaf enough.’ She grew up lip-reading and speaking and learned sign language only as a graduate student.”

c) What are the advantages and disadvantages of a Deaf person spending too much time in either Eyeth or Earth? The advantage of a Deaf person spending time in Eyeth is that said person can communicate with similarly communicated peoples, and not feel excluded by hearing people; the deaf person can easily focus on just sign language without having to try to read lips. The disadvantage to spending too much time in Eyeth is that said person can become isolated from the rest of the world, the hearing world, and may be lonely if s/he only occasionally meets another deaf person. The advantage of spending time in Earth is that the deaf person can communicate with all the people around them, hearing or not, through more than one method of communication, not just sign. The disadvantage to spending too much time on Earth is that hearing people would expect the deaf person to learn to read lips or even learn speech in order to communicate with hearing peoples, and said person would lose some of the ‘Deaf Culture.’

d) What is your opinion of the fight at Galludet? Should Jane K. Fernandes be President of Gallaudet? My opinion of the fight at Gallaudet is that it is pointless to argue. I believe that the applicant best qualified for the job should be the President. To say that some one is not “deaf enough” is like saying someone is not “white enough.” Its racism through social standards. Fernandes learned “sign language only as a graduate student,” but it shouldn’t matter if she was raised on ASL or if she learned it recently. She grew up learning how to communicate with the hearing world as best suited her, and it is not anyone’s business, nor should it effect her chances at a job, whenever she learned sign language. The point is that she can effectively communicate on both Eyeth and Earth, and if she is properly and best qualified to be the President of Gallaudet than she should be able to be. But then again, who am I to judge, I who could only survive on Eyeth if everything was spelled out slowly, letter by letter, for me?